Mahomet Ali had provided himself with a military force to supersede that which he overthrew. A regular army had been long training in the remoter provinces of Egypt, where the introduction of European military education could be accomplished without exciting the opposition of Mussulman fanaticism; and they were introduced into Cairo to obey the commands, without menacing or overawing the authority of the executive.

Many of the reforms introduced into Turkey by Mahmoud were of a frivolous and useless character; and others, which might have been salutary if prudently adopted, served only to awaken the fanatical opposition and to wound the religious prejudices of the Mussulmans. Where corresponding changes were sanctioned by Mahomet Ali, he took care not to shock the feelings of the population. For example, when, in order to introduce the military usages of western Europe, it was necessary to change the uniform of the Mahometan soldiers, Mahmoud at once insisted upon the use of the frock coat and the Frank pantaloons. In the minds of the Turks both were associated with notions of Christian degradation. Compared with the Oriental costume, that adopted by Europeans in general is naked and graceless; nor was it necessary or wise to change, by an arbitrary decree, the dress which had been sanctioned for ages for one so inconvenient as that which was ordered to replace it. Mahomet Ali also felt that the loose robes and long garments of the East would never accom modate themselves to the evolutions of regular military tactics; but he caused a costume to be worn which wounded no prejudices, which was connected with no sense of degradation and dishonour, which was at the same time well suited to the profession of arms.

So again, in carrying out a system of religious toleration. Under both Mahmoud and Mahomet the condition of the Christian population was very much meliorated. But the Sultan stopped short at the point where toleration might have been of the highest importance to his interests. He relieved the Christians from persecution, but he never advanced them to power. He lost the benefit of the knowledge, the activity, the influence, the varied aptitudes of the Rayah races; while Mahomet Ali, on the contrary, both in Egypt and in Syria, raised Christians to the highest dignities,-made an Armenian Christian (Boghos Bey) his prime minister and principal adviser in Egypt, and Bahri Bey (a native Christian) the civil governor of Syria.

Among the most important practical and substantial benefits which we have received from the government of Mahomet Ali, but which had no existence under Turkish rule, the secure, and speedy, and regular communication with the East Indies is not

the least. Before his reign there was no safety beyond the walls of Egyptian towns; but under his protection the desert has become as little dangerous as the most frequented road in Europe. And not only has he allowed the communications to be established, he has often lent the most efficient aid. Thousands of his camels have gratuitously conveyed our coals to the Red Sea, when our agents could find no other means of transport. His foundries have repaired the damages done to the engines of our steamers; his officers have again and again rendered highly valuable services; no tax or toll has ever been levied on letter or on traveller; in a word, he has acted as if himself and his country were the recipients of the glory and the profits of one of the most important evidences which modern times afford of the march of knowledge and the progress of mind. With every motive that pride and revenge could prompt, the Indian mails have not been retarded or perilled for a moment. If they have been arrested, it has been by British ambassadors, admirals, or agents, but not by the Egyptian Viceroy.

Both the Turkish and the Egyptian portions of the Ottoman empire owe most of their sufferings to the long-existing misunderstandings and hostilities, whose consequences have been the exhaustion of both. Turkey has been ruined by the attempt to govern countries remote from her capital, and of which her tenure has been fragile for many generations: her tenure was fragile even in the days of her strength, and, of course, became feebler with the decline of her power. Wise policy would have sought for such aid from the Arabic portion of her so-called dominions as she was able to obtain by negotiations, or hold by her own unassisted means. Even mighty nations cannot recover remote dominions which they have once lost. England has resigned herself to the separation of Northern, as Spain is submitting to that of Southern America. No European combination can restore a dominion which has substantially passed away, -passed away, not only by a succession of military conquests but by the force of social circumstances, by the creation of new interests, by the establishment of another nationality. Foreign intrusion may, without doubt, unseat the Egyptian power in Syria; but, do what we will, we cannot re-establish the Turkish power. It was always abhorred, even when it was strong enough to make itself obeyed; but now that its decrepitude brings with it only contempt and scorn,-how is it to be maintained? By foreign influence? Foreign influence, which it is the avowed purpose of the treaty to supersede.

Among the most prominent causes of the decay of nations are the attempts they make to govern remote regions, to which

they can offer no protection, and which they desire to hold for the sole purpose of depredation and oppression. The pride of dominion and the lust of power seem not to be controlled by any sense of weakness. During our contest with the United States, as during the idler struggle of Spain to retain her American dominions, how often did national pride and folly exclaim, "Shall we be despoiled of our fairest provinces? Shall we surrender our richest possessions?" Yet now, who doubts that the vain attempts of the metropolitan governments to keep. what had been broken off from them by the irresistible momentum of necessity, were prolific causes of suffering and exhaustion? We are now engaging Turkey-wretched, poverty-struck, protected Turkey-in the same hopeless struggle, and it requires no prophets to foretell that the struggle will be attended with the same hapless results. We are doing more than this. We have pledged ourselves to encourage and support her in maintaining her lost dominion. Our engagement conducts us into regions of interminable perplexity. We shall be perpetually called on to help the sovereign in domestic broils with his subjects. We shall first doubt, then hesitate, then resist, for opinion will not long tolerate our costly intervention; and then the Porte will naturally turn to Russia for aid-to Russia, which has an interest in intervention, which we have not, but rather a directly contrary interest-and to Russia the affairs of Turkey will be left. Her adjacency gives her the means, her policy the will, her treaty the right to interfere, and the fortunes and fate of Turkey will be transferred to her hands.

It is one of the characteristics of heedless policy that it loses sight of those who are principally concerned. The quarrel is about Syria-have the Syrians been consulted? Our affection for them—our interest in their happiness, has been displayed by the very brotherly and beneficent course of destroying their towns, and massacreing their people. We do not inquire whether they like to be governed by the Turks-we do not even inquire whether the Turks can govern them, but decide at once that the Turks shall govern them, because that suits our notions of the fitness of things. Unfortunate Syrians !-banded from Turk to Egyptian and Egyptian to Turk-well may they exclaim, "A plague upon both their houses!" well may they curse the meddlers who

"Make a desert, and then call it peace."

There is something very repugnant to true courage, as there is to humanity, in the service which our navy is called upon to perform. To bombard defenceless places, to ravage long lines

of coasts, is after all very inglorious warfare. The laurels gathered in fields like these have neither freshness, nor beauty, nor duration. The strength that is exercised for elevating and improving the condition of the human race, is an attribute in which a nation may glory; but to use power for the mean and malicious purposes of desolation and destruction, is most dishonouring and ignoble. What would be our judgment, what our emotions, if our towns were ruined, our ports blockaded, and our people murdered by foreign invaders, on the plea that they came to settle our internal disputes?*

It has long been held lawful by governments to do evil that good may come, but it is worth while to put on record the amount of evil which, in this instance, a British Cabinet has thought it lawful to commit for the problematical good of keeping the Russians out of Constantinople, an object in which, after all, we may not be finally successful. We copy the following account of the destruction of St Jean D'Acre from the Globe:

"At twenty-five minutes past four, the action being at its height, a terrific explosion took place in the town, which for a time wholly concealed it and the southern division from view; its appearance was truly awful, and I can compare it to nothing but as if a huge yew tree had suddenly been conjured up from the devoted town-it hung for many minutes a mighty pall over those hundreds it had hurled into eternity, and then slowly, owing to the lightness of the wind, drifted to the southward. It proved to be the explosion of the principal magazine of the place, one-third of which it has destroyed, and, from a whole regiment having been quartered in a khan immediately adjoining, it is supposed from 1,500 to 1,700 soldiers perished in the ruins, besides a number of camels, horses, bullocks, and donkeys."

"The town is one mass of ruins; the batteries and most of the houses' literally riddled all over; the killed and wounded lying about in all directions; lifeless trunks cut asunder; some without heads, others without legs and arms. Hundreds dying from the blood flowing from their wounds, and no one near to help them. The scene was truly awful! Almost every gun has been rendered useless, many upset, and most of them having a shot or two through their carriages; killed and wounded about in all directions—a sad sight. From this we went up into the citadel, a very strong and almost impregnable place; from this through a mosque, the stores and magazines, and then on to the crater, for I cannot use a more appropriate word; the quantity of powder was immense, the precise number of tons uncertain; but the space destroyed covers one mile, the number of killed by the explosion above 1,200, besides cattle, horses, &c.; in many places on the cinders I passed six and eight bodies, lying over and beside each other. In one place we counted thirty donkeys dead, having been tethered in a square ready to carry shot, &c., to the distant guns, cattle and horses half buried. Indeed, no one in the fleet ever witnessed such an extensive explosion. In the town there is not one house without many shot holes in it, nor one habitable. I could not have imagined a city so completely destroyed, and was really glad to find myself again on board."

Subsequent official accounts state that the explosion destroyed two whole regiments formed in position, and every living thing within 60,000 square yards.

Acre was taken on the 3rd November, 1840, after remaining eight years

Let it not be forgotten that this attempt to deliver the Syrians over to the Turks is really a design to deliver them over to a foreign and invading despot. A very large proportion of the Syrian population do not profess the Mohametan faith, and almost the whole of them are ignorant of the Turkish language. To the south of Aleppo nothing but Arabic is spoken. The power which affinity of language gives to a government is great, and the Arabic language is in itself a power, and a mighty power in the East. As all translations of the Koran are prohibited, as the Turks, the Persians, the Nubians, and indeed every part of the Mussulman family, must listen to the teachings of the Holy Book in its original language alone, that language is in itself an instrument of considerable influence throughout the Mahometan world. It is to a great extent the representative of civilization. The best of the knowledge which exists in the East is discoverable only in an Arabic dress. The faint glimmering of true philosophy, the best treatises on the medical art, admirable works on mathematical science, and even books on ethics not wholly without merit, are to be found in the Arabic tongue. Arabic undoubtedly occupies the most advanced position in Oriental progress. The Turkish is the most backward, not to say the most brutal, portion of Islamism. Its influence is unassociated with improvement in any shape; it rules by the sword, and legislates by the bow-string.

We have been using for the furtherance of our purpose two instruments in Syria-they are both full of danger-insurrection and bribery. We have offered arms gratuitously to a disarmed and warlike population, and they have accepted them. But it is an experiment perilous to our policy. policy. The disarming of the Syrians by Ibrahim Pacha in 1836, was the most remarkable evidence of the power of his name, and the extent of his influence. It was a daring and despotic act, but its consequences were, on the whole, favourable to peace and order. From that period the tranquillity of Mount Lebanon has not been disturbed; no bandit deeds, no extensive plunderings, no resistance to authority, have been witnessed. Under the in the possession of Mahomet Ali. Geramb, in his 'Letters from Palestine,' writes (June 10th, 1832), "Acre has just surrendered; I hear the reports of muskets fired in token of rejoicing. Among the Christians there are many who shout for joy in the hope of being rescued from oppression."

When Napoleon failed before St Jean D'Acre, it was defended by the British. We were then the ally of Achmet Pacha, surnamed Djezzar, or the Butcher, who, although nominally a servant of the Sultan, was really the independent governor of Syria, and whose system of government was to pluck out the eyes, and cut off the ears and noses, even of his own ministers, when they offended him.